Principal Cinematography Completed on "No Sleep for Ronni"

The last full day of shooting on No Sleep for Ronni was concluded outdoors yesterday during the blistering 92 degree swelter. Yet, the summer heat happily wasn't much of an issue for our star, Veronica Narang, or for our crew. Why? Because we shot in and around an abandoned 19th century railroad tunnel with natural spring-cooled "air-conditioning".

The location for this sequence was originally referred to in the script as a long hallway. The plan was to secure a school for the shoot, but after failing on several attempts to do so, the "school" idea began to loose its appeal--not the least of reasons being that we wouldn't be able to run a commercial fog machine inside the building (fire codes).

The school was replaced with the intention of using a bicycle underpass. Yet, issues of lighting, fogging, and biker traffic were all real obstacles to the successful completion of the shoot. Up until this point, all of the previous filming locations for the movie had surpassed our expectations in both functionally and artistic mood. Now with one major sequence to go, it felt as though we were "settling" for less than what the story needed.

At the 11th hour, our cinematographer suggested a little known abandoned railroad tunnel he'd visited once. It would require a drive to get there and then a hike in, but after one look at photos online, we knew we'd found the right place.

As we parked the cars and loaded up the gear, the heat of the day was on the rise. But to our pleasant surprise, the closer we got to the tunnel, the cooler and moister the air became. Natural springs and extremes in temperatures were creating a billowing fog that pretty much poured out of the arched entrance for most of the day. Not only did we find the right look for our shoot, but we also got the fog we wanted! Everything just seemed to go right on this production, and the fog effect was simply another example of how the filmmaking gods were smiling down upon us.

A small, mobile cast and crew (after a long, hard day of work on set), L to R: Robin Witt (assistant to Veronica Narang), Veronica Narang, Colin Cameron (producer/script supervisor/grip), Simon Witt (production assistant), Erik Witt (cinematographer/Steadicam), Robert Lughai (director/sound).

Photos by Colin Cameron, Robin Witt, and Veronica Narang.

A small set of supporting character pickup shots remains before filming is finished on this project.